Two people charged with setting a number of fires in the South Whitehall Township area earlier this year appeared in Lehigh County Court Monday morning. Cory Praschyk, 21, of Bethlehem gave up his right to a preliminary hearing before District Judge Michael D'Amore, while his co-defendant Nicolle H. Balliet, 19, of Allentown opted to postpone her hearing. The district judge refused to lower her bail of $10,000. South Whitehall police charged the pair with setting several brush fires over the weekend in South Whitehall, North Whitehall and Upper Macungie townships.

Schuylkill County Commissioners on Wednesday lifted a ban on outdoor burning that was sparked by concerns of brush fires. They enacted the ban April 20 at the behest of Mark Deibler of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and county Emergency Management Agency operations officer John Matz. But by this week, Emergency Management coordinator Art Kaplan told commissioners it's safe to lift the ban. Kaplan based his recommendation on state's recommendation and on the "improved weather outlook from the National Weather Service."

The Lehigh Valley's water supply is apparently in good shape, despite an unusually mild winter that brought less than a fifth of the previous year's snowfall. At present, at least, the absence of a substantial snow pack -- accumulated snow that melts in spring and replenishes streams and the water table -- is not expected to make the region drought-prone come August. A lot depends, however, on how much rain falls in the next six weeks, said Chris Roberts, spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission.

By Christopher R. Mena Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | May 1, 2008

Despite dry weather that has contributed to brush fires in neighboring municipalities, Bowmanstown's mayor says he won't enact a burning ban in the borough because there's no way to enforce it. Mayor Keith Billig told Borough Council on Tuesday he won't follow other surrounding municipalities in making it illegal for people to openly burn in the tiny borough. More than a half-dozen brush fires have broken out in recent weeks in neighboring Lower Towamensing Township and along nearby Blue Mountain in Carbon and Lehigh counties as the area has seen an unusually active season for wildfires, officials said.

When we moved into our home on a lake development on the Pocono plateau in northeastern Pennsylvania, we were unaware of one of its greatest assets. It was more than enough that warm September to swim in the lake, to ride our bikes through the flaming foliage of myriad trails and to settle into the house. But just around the corner, down the old clinker-covered railroad bed that led to the remains of the turn-of-the-century ice-houses, lay the perfect culture for blueberries and blackberries -- boggy, acidic, glacial soil with a history of brush fires.